Canadian women's soccer team as good as gold

Bruce Arthur, Postmedia Olympic Team08.09.2012

Diana Matheson of Canada (R) is taken on the shoulders of Rhian Wilkinson (7) as Brittany Timko (L) and Christine Sinclair (R) celebrate their winning goal that would lead to the bronze medal against France at the London 2012 Olympic Games, August 09, 2012. Canada won the bronze medal by beating France 1-0.

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COVENTRY — The French coach, Bruno Bini, compared it to unrequited love. “C’est comme en amour, hein?” he said, with the air of a heartbroken poet. “En amour, parfois, tu peux aimer à la folie, ca ne suffit pas. On a tout donne.” It is like a love, he said. A love, sometimes, you can love to madness, and it’s not enough. We gave everything.

It was a beautiful day in Coventry, and the French women’s soccer team has chased Olympic bronze with remarkable ardour. They began to constrict the field in the first half; in the second, they owned it. Again and again, they sent the ball at the Canadian net. Post, crossbar, crossbar again. Off Erin McLeod, off Desiree Scott, off Carmelina Moscato. High, wide, over and over, again and again. It felt inevitable that they would score. How could they not score?

“Halfway through the first half we knew we were dead tired,” said Canadian star Christine Sinclair. “Playing extra time against the States [in the semifinal], and the intensity of that game, we knew we didn’t really have anything left in the tank. But seeing them hit their second crossbar, seeing them get cleared off the line, Erin making an amazing save, I just felt like we were going to get that one chance.”

For two weeks there was grousing about all our silver and bronze medals, because so few of them resonated like real victories, whether they were or not. With just one gold medal, the moment of the Games had been Canada’s loss in the semifinal; after that, it may have been triathlete Paula Findlay finishing last. All the way through the Olympics, it was almost as if we hadn’t had an emotional beacon that didn’t flicker. Like we hadn’t had a light that didn’t go out.

And this one seemed unlikely to shine. Canada had not won a medal in a traditional team sport — basketball, soccer, volleyball, and so forth — since 1936, when the men’s basketball team lost to the United States in the gold-medal game in Berlin. The Canadian women’s soccer team had not beaten a higher-ranked team at a major tournament since 2003, when they finished fourth at the World Cup. In 2011, at the World Cup, Canada lost 4-0 to France, and finished last.

This time, the team looked like it had a hangover after Monday’s emotional, incredible 4-3 loss to the United States. Canada has fallen just short so many times in these Olympics. Of course France would score.

“I mean, emotionally, we were shattered,” said Canadian midfielder Diana Matheson, listed at five feet tall. “I know I was. We believed 100 per cent that we were going to come out with a win [Monday], and for it to go the way it did, again, against the U.S., really broke us down. But having the perspective that we came in and wanted to get on the podium.”

And Canada kept dodging bullets, and the clock ticked. It reached 90 minutes, and two minutes of added time were announced. After a minute, Canada began moving the ball up the left side. Sinclair cleared some space at the corner of the box, drew two defenders, and found Sophie Schmidt. Schmidt turned and found Matheson, who slipped a clever pass between defenders back to Schmidt. The clock kept ticking. Canada had a chance.

“We controlled the game from the first minute to the 91st minute,” said Bini, in French. “We didn’t lose. We didn’t manage to win.”

Schmidt turned and shot, and the ball ricocheted off a French defender, for a change. The ball bounced right to Matheson, who had advanced. Only Canadian Kaylyn Kyle was in the way. The rest was open net.

“And it’s just like, oh my gosh, we’re going to win this game,” said Sinclair. “Dee, she’s one of our most composed players, and I think we’re very glad it fell to her. Dee was celebrating before it went in.”

The ball went in. The Canadians celebrated. The referee told them there were only 10 seconds left. The whistle blew.

“I never sprint up the field,” said longtime defender Candace Chapman, who played the final 10 minutes despite a strained calf. “And I sprinted.”

“I mean, football is cruel,” said Canadian coach John Herdman, who took over after the 2011 World Cup. “The French will walk out of this hitting the bar, hitting the post, [Scott] clearing off the line, but it tells you something about these girls. They weren’t going to give that medal away. Diane Matheson could have been standing on the halfway line, waiting to defend another attack, but she wasn’t. She was where she needed to be. It tells you how this team’s shifted — we’ve gone to another level, and the job now is to stay there.”

Matheson had microfracture surgery on her knee late last year; she, like many players, put her life on hold to train with the team in Vancouver, full-time. As the diminutive 28-year-old from Oakville, Ont. put it, “I don’t have many job on my resume, yet; I’ve just been playing soccer. A whole bunch of this team has been together for a long time — we did this year, we did last year — I mean, we don’t have other jobs, we haven’t played club soccer, most of us, to focus on this team. And to get this result out of it is so rewarding.”

For so long, playing women’s soccer for Canada felt like unrequited love. But this time, it was French defender Wendie Renard who just sat by the goalpost, all alone. This time, it was France’s Laura Georges who walked over to a corner of the field where a Canadian flag was being brandished, and clapped her hands above her head. This time it was the French coach saying he had eyes to cry tonight.

“I feel like things like this never happen for Canada,” said Chapman. “And finally, to come away with it ... ”

They needed this, but Canada needed this, too. This didn’t feel like bronze; this felt like gold. This time it was Canada’s turn. Bini, that poet of a man, said “On peut etre noble quand on a perdu,” and our nation knew that feeling all too well. This time, we didn’t have to.

barthur@nationalpost.com

twitter: bruce_arthur

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